Emraam:My wife didn't stop me 4rm Kissing

By Subhash K Jha

Post-marriage Emran Hashmi is back from his honeymoon. But he would rather not call it his honeymoon. "I'd rather call it a vacation. Honeymoon is too formal a concept for us. Parveen and I have been together for more than seven years."

Has Parveen forbidden Emran from kissing his heroines? "No! She never said that. Parveen is the last one to interfere in my career. However no girlfriend or wife is going to jump with joy if she sees her man kissing another woman.

She's been with my from my college days. We started off as friends. From there marriage took its natural course. We didn't force anything."

Emran's marriage last month was a very private affair. "I'm a private person. On the sets I like to keep myself. I don't know about others, but I require a lot of concentration on my work. But I'm a different person off-hours.

As for marriage I invited practically everyone who mattered to me. I had no desperate urge to make my marriage this Page 3 kick-ass event. The whole process of marriage and leaving on a vacation was great fun."

No radical changes in his life after marriage, except…. "You wake up with someone else in the bed. That's when it dawns on you that the status of the relationship has changed. Also, the fights about dirty towels lying round, etc etc. But seriously, the relationship is more defined now. We've taken our bonding to the next level."

As for the female attention Emran has learnt to deal with it. "More than me, my wife needs to deal with it. She's been very supportive and understanding. I mean to marry an actor who has been tagged a serial kisser can't be easy for her. To deal with that tag requires a lot of will-power."

Emran has made no conscious decision to stop kissing on screen. "but I'm not going to do it just for the heck of it any longer. It started with Murder, and then onwards my films had a kissing scene each time.

That was completely uncalled-for and silly. Because at the end of the day it's the film's merit and not a kiss that works. …I actually said no to a kiss in Killer.

We debated on the sets and we decided there was no need for it. And Killer bombed! On the other hand, in defence of my decision to not kiss in every film, I cite Jawani Diwani which bombed in spite of a smooch. I rest my kiss…er, case."

Emran is against whipping up a frenzy regarding the kiss. "It's not just me. Other stars who have kissed recently have been spoken about," he says referring to Hrithik's much-discussed kiss in Dhoom. "But I don't think my career is defined by kissing. But yes, the kisses are a talking point. So they've served their purpose."